Clerking for Dollars

In the May 14, 2001, issue, in The Talk of the Town, Jonathan Kay considers the case of Circuit Court Judge Danny J. Boggs, who administers trivia tests to prospective clerks. Here is the Boggs trivia test from 2000.

51. How long does it take for light from the surface of the sun to reach the earth?

52. Who pardoned Debs? Nixon? Mandela?

53. Who was Atahualpa?

54. How did Samson die?

55. When was King Phillip's War?

56. Who is your favorite author? What is your favorite work by that author?

57. Who said “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line”?

58. Name three famous Leopolds.

59. Distinguish chukkers from Chequers from Checkers.

60. Who dragged Hector around the Walls of Troy?

61. Who wrote “We are the hollow men. . .”?

62. Who, what, or where is Vaduz?

63. What is the sum of the interior angles of a pentagon?

64. Who had a famous “Last Theorem”? “Last Tape”? “Last Stand”?

65. Identify Rigoberta Menchú.

66. Whose name is the first line of the following complete poem: “______/slept under the dresser./When that began to pall,/he slept in the hall”?

67. What does the Constitution say about the number of members of the Supreme Court?

68. What state currently has the third most members of Congress?

69. Who wrote “The Ballad of the White Horse”?

70. If the moon were made of green cheese, and if green cheese floats in water, what is the most that the moon could weigh (within a factor of 10)?

71. Edit:

Sam Stevens, et. ux, brought suit against their clother for selling defective suits. The suit was resolved by Stevens v. Jones, 71 F. 3d. 362. The district court had granted summery judgement against the Stevens', but on appeal, the Court decided that the plaintiff's claims deserved a trial.

Answers

1. industry concentration

2. Minerva; Aphrodite

3. Schiller/Beethoven

4. e.g., “The Blind Assassin,” “Alias Grace”

5. robbing banks

7. while I pondered, weak and weary

8. seven

9. the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, respectively

10. 1/512

11. Malaysia

12. T. S. Eliot

13. Sierra Leone

14. Nigeria; Brazil

15. wind; blood pressure; humidity

16. Sojourner Truth

17. 633

18. Cabeza de Vaca was a Spanish explorer. Vasco de Gama was a Portuguese explorer.

19. e.g., “The Jungle Book,” “Kim,” “Gunga Din”

20. Roy M. Cohn was a lawyer who worked on McCarthy's anti-Communist crusade. Roy G. Biv is a mnemonic device for remembering the colors of the rainbow.

21. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer. Kolmogorov-Smirnov is a statistical test.

34. American economist and social critic, author of “The Theory of the Leisure Class”

35. Symbionese Liberation Army leader who kidnapped Patty Hearst; also, a slave from Sierra Leone who led the Amistad Rebellion

36. King Lear, King John

37. 19th century American photographer, celebrated for portraits of politicians and photographs of the Civil War

39. a western naval journalist who wrote “The Great Pacific War”

40. which I see before me

41. 1847; Monrovia

42. Siberia; California; Central Asia; the moon

43. e.g., “A Book of Burlesques”; “Damn: A Book of Calumny”; “Happy Days”

44. Tennyson

45. American short story writer and novelist; won Pulitzer Prize for “The Optimist's Daughter”

46. Santiago

47. Granada

48. “The Tempest”

49. six figures representing the city fathers of Calais, who offered themselves as hostages to end Edward III's siege of the city; Rodin

50. Harold “Red” Grange, a football player

51. about 8 minutes

52. President Harding; President Ford; F. W. de Klerk released Mandela

53. Inca Emperor of Peru

54. He pulled down the two supporting pillars of the temple and killed himself.

55. 1675-1676

57. W. E. B. DuBois

58. e.g., Aldo Leopold, King Leopold, Leopold Bloom, Nathan Leopold

59. Chukkers are periods of play in polo; Chequers is the British Prime Minister's official country residence; Checkers was Nixon's dog.

60. Achilles

61. T. S. Eliot

62. the capital of Liechtenstein

63. 540 degrees

64. Fermat; Krapp; Custer

65. Guatemalan Indian-rights activist awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992; wrote “I, Rigoberta Menchú,” the accuracy of which was later disputed

66. Edward the Confessor

67. Article III, Section One states that there will be one Supreme Court but does not specify the number of members. The Judiciary Act of 1789 set the number at six.

68. Texas

69. G. K. Chesterton

70. 10 (to the 21st) pounds

71.

Sam Stevens, et ux., brought suit against their clothier for selling defective suits. The suit was resolved by Stevens v. Jones, 71 F.3d 362. The district court had granted summary judgment against the Stevenses, but on appeal, the court decided that the plaintiffs' claims deserved a trial.